This is the guy who bankrupted several casinos and pretended to be his own publicist apparently without disguising his voice.

On the subject of "John Barron", the depth of Trump's egotism becomes even more apparent when you realize that since he had already named one son after himself, he named his youngest after his alter ego.

I didn't mean to imply that he had any common sense or wisdom at all. But he could parse spoken English on the fly as well as anyone who actually earned a college degree. Now he sounds like a mildly deficient ten year old.

Rich brat like that? Probably paid other people to do his homework. And it's not as though his previous job required him to display much in the way of intellectual rigour. His stupidity is more noticeable now that he is required to discuss topics other than real estate, branding and hot women. He seems to have lost some vocabulary in person (he still Tweets four syllable words) but a lot of old people get more rigid and repetitive.

So, what do you think Giulaini is playing at? We know Trump's stupid, but I thought Giulaini was just an arsehole. He can't possibly be this stupid too?

The theory that makes the most sense is that he is trying to protect Cohen by shifting the blame to Trump in the knowledge that Trump will not suffer any consequences as long as he remains in office. By painting paying off mistresses as a totally normal thing for rich men to do, he's giving Fox News the talking points to feed the base, thereby preventing Trump from being convicted even if the Democrats manage to move articles of impeachment against Trump come November.

"Yeah he did things that are crimes, but they're not crimes because Republicans say so, Trump's the real victim here, so neener."

Point. When she was four years old my own niece called me a foul creature of the darkness, and didn't feel any need to add 'sad'.

Kea, I'm not sure Rudy's that smart. His only legal experience is as a mediocre criminal prosecutor decades ago; and there's no reason to think he learned anything about criminal defense or campaign law at the time. That said, we can safely assume he's learned nothing since (and forgot most of what he may accidentally have picked up) I suspect he's just talking out his butt in the hope that if he keeps doing it eventually he'll get it right.

Edit: Looks like New York is going to need a new Attorney General. Well, poo.

That's why I think Giulaini isn't following a legal strategy so much as a PR one. He's basically been a cable news talking head for the last decade, right? One who says anything for attention. The basic calculation is that presidents can't be charged with crimes, only impeached, and you win impeachment in the court of public opinion. In that regard, Cohen flipping in the Russia probe presents a greater risk than admitting to Stormy Daniels shenanigans.

I'm not dead certain, but I'm fairly sure you can charge a sitting president with a felony. You probably won't be able to actually prosecute until they leave office; but to keep the Statute of Limitations from running out you may not have a choice about formally charging them with certain offenses, and from what I understand the current ruling decisions from the Supremes would suggest that you'd get away with it.

Mind you, if these are Federal crimes you'd probably then descend into the thicket of the President's power to pardon and to collude with his Veep. But that's another story.

A sitting President who has the ability to hire the boss of the person who will be doing the prosecuting is really difficult to prosecute for anything, regardless of the actual legalities of the matter.

This goes double if the person currently in office is willing to accept a golden handshake and clear out.

Mind you, if these are Federal crimes you'd probably then descend into the thicket of the President's power to pardon and to collude with his Veep. But that's another story.

I think that's how they're going to play it. They aren't going to try to win at chess; they can't, so they're going to flip over the board and throw away the pieces. Trump will spin enough "executive privilege" claims to make John Yoo blush. And his lackeys in Congress are trying to subpoena Sessions and Roseinstein into oblivion. Either they comply and release Mueller's classified evidence, or they get held in contempt of Congress, which gives Trump the excuse to fire one or both of them.

Not to mention, Trump's porn star scandal doesn't hurt him in the polls. It merely confirms the view of everyone who already thinks he's a scumbag, while those who don't care that he's a scumbag find it easy to ignore. As long as it's sucking up all the attention, nobody's talking about Trump's very real failures in governing, which means he gets to claim credit for the economy and North Korea's diplomatic overtures.

On the other hand, felonies under state law are going to be a killer. There's literally no one who can protect him and no where in the US to hide if, say, New York charges him with crimes. Given the raft of laws Trump has openly flouted with over the last decades, that's going to be a bit of an issue for him.

From what I've seen that shell company of Cohen's had nearly five million dollars in bribes and illegal hush money go through it, and that's just what I've seen. I wonder how much there'd be if we had a Mueller eye view of that mess?

Pretty sure there's a Supreme Court decision lurking around making it ridiculously difficult to prosecute bribery any more. It has to be a provable quid pro quo, with the quo appearing in flashing red rights with "I DID THIS FAVOUR BECAUSE OF A BRIBE" on it. Otherwise it's legal for government officials to get paid for meeting people. Way to go, America, you've legalised corruption. Hope Mueller's got the goods.

Back to Schneiderman, it's just as well he quit when he did, because apparently Trump has known about his domestic violence since around 2013. He talked big but was never going to prosecute Trump when Trump had blackmail material on him.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 1 guest

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum